


Professionals

by LearnedFoot



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Action/Adventure, Christmas, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Mission Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:55:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28311237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LearnedFoot/pseuds/LearnedFoot
Summary: Of all the ways Tony imagined his first Christmas with Peter going wrong, a giant snowman attacking Manhattan had not been one of the possibilities.Clearly he needs to expand his imagination.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Comments: 10
Kudos: 94
Collections: Ironspiders Georg Secret Stocking Stuffer Exchange 2020





	Professionals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chelicerata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelicerata/gifts).



> A just-under-the-wire treat, inspired by your like of Peter and Tony being superhero boyfriends, which is a v. good like <3 Happy holidays!
> 
> AU where Tony survives _Endgame_ , and set somewhere down the line. I'm imagining Peter in his early 20s.

Of all the ways Tony imagined his first Christmas with Peter going wrong, a giant snowman attacking Manhattan had not been one of the possibilities.

Clearly he needs to expand his imagination.

“What in the Jolly Happy Hell?” he barks into the comms as he swoops onto the scene just in time to watch the snowman dash its oak-tree of an arm into the nearest building.

Peter laughs at his quip over their private channel, sounding a little breathless. He’s probably still trying to catch up.

They’d been at brunch. A very nice brunch, at a very fancy restaurant, which Tony paid a lot of money to clear out so he and Peter could enjoy a meal without gawkers and paparazzi. It was supposed to be the first step in a seven step plan to give Peter Parker the best Christmas in the history of Christmases and ensure he stay with Tony at least until the next one, at which point Tony would somehow create an even better Christmas to keep him around for another year, and so on, and so forth, year after year. And, okay, maybe the whole thing was pinning too much on a single holiday, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

They hadn’t even gotten to the mimosas.

“Ask Strange.” That’s Wilson on comms, who’s currently darting around the snowman’s head, blasting it with—is that a heat lamp? Dear God, it’s a heat lamp. “This is his fault.” 

“‘Fault’ is a strong word,” Strange protests. 

Tony scans the area. Wanda’s on top of a building, doing something impressive with her hands that seems to be keeping the monstrosity in a relatively confined area. Rhodey is speeding around with Wilson, periodically ramming the snowman with prolonged blaster hits, clearly trying to heat it up. Tony thinks he sees Barnes scampering about on the ground, doing who knows what.

But no sign of the wizard or his incredible flying carpet cloak. But they aren’t far from the sanctum, maybe he’s doing magic mojo from there.

“As happy as I am to blame Dumbledore for all my problems, let’s focus on how we fix this,” Tony says. “Where do you need us?”

At this point the team knows Tony and Peter come as a package deal, but in case there’s any doubt who the “us” in that sentence is referring to, Peter picks this moment to swing into the zone of action, exclaiming, “Whoa, this is like _Ghostbusters_!”

“That’s what I said,” Rhodey comments, with the enthusiasm of someone who was met with dead silence the first time around.

“We’ve been trying to melt it,” Wilson cuts in. “Want to get in on that, Stark?”

“Not really, but okay,” Tony agrees, flying at the snowman with his blasters up. Privately, he tells F.R.I.D.A.Y. to get to work on a better solution than _melting it_.

“What can I do?” Peter asks.

Tony smiles into his mask. He has a feeling the snow dude won’t respond to webbing. Peter will be annoyed if he doesn’t get to join the fight, but Tony will fly a lot easier if Peter has to sit it out.

His glee lasts about five seconds, before Barnes chimes in with, “You can help me.”

“Help you with what?” Tony asks. Too late: down on the ground he can see Peter’s bright suit swinging in the direction of the black spot that is Barnes. “What is Pete— _whoa_!”

He ducks and spins, just barely dodging the snowman’s massive carrot of a nose, which looks big enough to feed the entire city.

By the time he rights himself and gets out of the way, he’s lost track of Peter. Which is—fine. It’s fine.

Well, no, obviously, it’s not fine. It is in no way fine. Every second Peter is out of his sight in a fight is one second Tony’s closer to a panic attack. Intellectually, he knows Peter is more than capable of handling himself, but it still makes Tony want to beeline for the ground and go play bodyguard against whatever’s going on down there.

But he has a Christmas-themed attack on New York to think about, and besides, the one and only time he tried to interfere with Peter on a mission after they started dating, Peter hadn’t spoken to him for a week. He’s learned his lesson.

And then the carrot comes at him again, and he doesn’t have time to worry about anything but staying in the air.

***

The melting mission turns out to be useless, so the fight transforms into a game of containment as they experiment with increasingly ridiculous strategies for making a dent in the thing. It goes on for long enough that Tony is starting to feel the strain in his muscles, the snap-crackle along his back that reminds him he’s not as young as he was when he first stepped into the suit.

And then, suddenly— _wham_ —the snowman pops out of existence.

After the initial shock wears off and the team has gone through the inevitable round of “ _what the fuck_ ,” Tony makes that beeline for the ground he’s been resisting all battle, growling at F.R.I.D.A.Y. to find his spiderling on the double.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take long to spot Peter, who’s standing in a pile of rubble clutching—is that a small child? Yep, it definitely is.

As Tony zooms closer, he sees Barnes approach Peter with a crying woman. By the time Tony lands, Peter has handed the kid over to what Tony can only assume is the mom, and Barnes is escorting both of them away, presumably to go somewhere with a lower risk of broken building bits falling from the sky.

“What was that about?” Tony asks, letting his suit melt away. He resists the urge to do something ridiculously cheesy like sprinting over and scooping Peter into his arms. They are, as Peter has grumpily reminded him several times, supposed to be professionals.

Tony doesn’t give a shit about professionalism, but Peter has a thing about wanting to impress the other Avengers, so okay, Tony will keep his stride to at a reasonable pace and refrain from shoving his boyfriend into the nearest pile of rubble and kissing him until he can forget the danger they were just in. But it would be one hell of a kiss, for the record.

“Tony!” Peter rips his mask off, revealing a grin that’s a little wild around the edges. He holds something up. A necklace. A necklace with an amulet. That is definitely a necklace with an amulet. “I did it!”

“Did what, exactly?” Tony asks, slowing down. He has a feeling that’s a piece of magical jewelry. He hates magical jewelry.

“The little boy found this amulet. It grants wishes for the pure of heart, I guess? Which is pretty wild, what does that even mean? Magic is so weird.” Peter shakes his head in that adorable way he does when he realizes he’s getting off track. “But anyway, I guess it worked for him, and he wished for Frosty, because he’s _five_ , but the amulet obviously went overboard. And then he lost his mom in the chaos and was scared, and the more he panicked the angrier the snowman got. So after I found him I had to calm him down and convince him to un-wish the wish, which was a whole thing. But I did it! And, yeah, now the snowman is gone.”

He stops this little speech, panting. His hair is matted with sweat, there’s dirt smeared across his nose, but he beams, radiating triumph.

Tony will never, ever get tired of looking at him. He still can’t believe he gets to take this man home with him for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas—screw it. He’s seen how people behave at the SI holiday party. Professional standards are allowed to go out the window once a year. Tony closes the distance between them and grabs Peter around the waist, pulling him close.

Peter melts into the embrace, looking up with that grin still sparkling through his eyes, so he must be willing to get at least a little frisky in the field today. A Christmas miracle.

“Mr. Parker, are you telling me you saved the day with the power of your charming personality?” 

“I…” Peter’s eyebrows pull together, considering. “I mean, yeah, I guess kinda?”

Of course he did. Welcome to Tony’s daily reminder that he has no idea what the hell he did to deserve this kid, but he’s definitely going to do everything in his power to keep him.

Tony kisses Peter, quickly—if the team sees the catcalls will start, and that got old the first time—but deeply enough to get his feelings across.

“Peter Parker, you”—he kisses his forehead—“are the most”—his nose—“incredible human being in the world.” Another on his lips, just for good measure. “Now let’s get that amulet back to Strange before it realizes you’re the purest damn person its ever met and starts spreading spiders all over New York or something.”

Peter crinkles his nose.

“Ew, I would _not_ wish for spiders.” His hands sneak up the back of Tony’s shirt. “Besides, I’m definitely not thinking pure thoughts right now.”

“Oh, my, Mr. Parker, I do declare.” Tony waggles his eyebrows for effect. “Isn’t this getting a little _unprofessional_?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Peter agrees, untangling himself from Tony’s arms. Before Tony has time to feel disappointed, he adds, “You know, I’m sure brunch was going to be amazing and everything, but how would you feel about heading straight back to your place after the debrief?”

As if it’s even a question.

“I’d feel great about that.”

Peter’s smile somehow gets even wider.

“Best. Christmas. Ever,” he says, giving Tony a peck on the cheek before dashing off toward where the rest of the team is starting to congregate.

“Yep,” Tony agrees as he watches him go. “Best Christmas ever.”

He’ll save the seven point plan for next year. Because, yeah, he’s pretty sure there will be a next year.

(And with any luck, a bunch of years after that.)

**Author's Note:**

> As always, feedback is loved <3


End file.
